Pearls and Pearling Life

Edwin W. Streeter

Description

Pearls are glistening, solid object created within the tissue of a living mollusc or other shelled animals. Pearls of the highest quality are categorised as gemstones and considered to be objects of beauty in many cultures. This vintage book explores the world of pearls and pearl farming, giving an outline of its history from ancient times to the developments of modern pearling life. Contents include: “Pearl-culture and Pearl-faming”, “Historical”, “Ancient Ideas of the Origin and Virtues of Pearls”, “Pearl-bearers”, “Mother-of-Pearl Shell”, “The Origin and Formation of Pearls”, “The North-West Australian Fishery”, “The Torres Straights Fishery”, “Pearling Life at the Present Day”, “Cevlon Pearl Fisheries”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. It is with this in mind that we are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 22 mars 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781528769112
• Langue: English

Extrait

PEARLS
AND
PEARLING LIFE.
BY
EDWIN W. STREETER, F.R.G.S., M.A.I.
Gold Medallist of the Royal Order of Frederic, Holder of a Gold Medal from H.M, the King of the Belgians, Author of PRECIOUS STONES AND GEMS, 4 th Edition, GREAT DIAMONDS OF THE WORLD, GOLD: Its Legal Regulations and Standards, c., c.,
Illustrated.
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd. This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
For me the balm shall bleed and Amber flow,
The Coral redden, and the Ruby glow,
The Pearly shell its lucid globe infold ,
And Ph bus warm the ripening ore to Gold.
Pope s Windsor Forest .
AN INTRODUCTORY EXCERPT CHAPTER
BY GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ,
THE BOOK OF THE PEARL - THE HISTORY, ART, SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY OF THE QUEEN OF THE GEMS 1908
PEARL-CULTURE AND PEARL-FARMING
Some asked how pearls did grow, and where.
Then spoke I to my girl,
To part her lips, and show them there
The quarelets of pearl.
H ERRICK , The Quarrie of Pearls .
THE great profit that would accrue from an increased output of pearls has long directed attention to the problem of bringing this about by artificial means.
In his life of Apollonius of Tyana, Philostratus, a Greek writer of the third century, repeats a story afloat at the time, which credited the Arabs of the Red Sea with possessing some method of growing pearls artificially. The story as it reached Greece was that they first poured oil upon the sea for the purpose of calming the waves, and then dived down and caused the oysters to open their shells. Having effected this, they pricked the flesh with a sharp instrument and received the liquor which flowed from the wounds into suitable molds, and this liquor there hardened into the shape, color, and consistence of the natural gems. 1
While the description given by Philostratus is charged with many improbable details, and could scarcely develop belief, even in the most credulous, as to the exact method of procedure, it seems that the story may not have been wholly without foundation, and that attempts were made at that remote date to stimulate the growth of pearls.
In more modern times, the possibility of aiding or starting pearly formations in mollusks seems first to have been conceived by the Chinese about the fourteenth century. In 1736 there appeared in that storehouse of Oriental information, Lettres difiantes et curieuses crites des missions trang res, 2 a communication from F. X. de Entrecolles, dated Pekin, 4th November, 1734, which set forth that there were people in China who busied themselves with growing pearls, and the product was not only vastly superior to the imitations manufactured in Europe, but were scarcely to be distinguished from the genuine. From Father Entrecolles s very detailed quotation of his unnamed Chinese authority, we condense this account. In a basin one half full of fresh water, place the largest mussels obtainable, set this basin in a secluded place where the dew may fall thereon, but where no female approaches, and neither the barking of dogs nor the crowing of chickens is to be heard. Pulverize some seed-pearls ( Yo tchu ), such as are commonly used in medicine, moisten this powder with juice expressed from leaves of a species of holly ( Che ta-kong lao ), and then roll the moistened powder into perfectly round pellets the size of a pea. These are permitted to dry under a moderate sunlight, and then are carefully inserted within the open shells of the mollusks. Each day for one hundred days the mussels are nourished with equal parts of powdered ginseng, china root, peki , which is a root more glutinous than isinglass, and of pecho , another medicinal root, all combined with honey and molded in the form of rice grains.
Although extremely detailed in some particulars, the Chinese account omits much to be desired as to the method in which the shells were opened to receive the pellets and the nourishment, and as to the importance of seclusion from females and loud noises. Admitting that it is inaccurate and misleading, this letter seems to indicate very clearly that the Chinese had some method of assisting nature in growing pearls in river mussels.
The first person in Europe whose suggestion of the possibility of pearl-culture attracted general attention was Linn us, the Swedish naturalist (1707-1778). In a letter to Von Haller, the Swiss anatomist, dated 13th September, 1748, he wrote: At length I have ascertained the manner in which pearls originate and grow in shells; and in the course of five or six years I am able to produce, in any mother-of-pearl shell the size of one s hand, a pearl as large as the seed of the common vetch. 1 There was much secrecy about Linn us s discovery, and even yet there is uncertainty as to the details of the method.
The Linnean Society of London apparently possesses some of the very pearls grown by Linn us, as well as several manuscripts which throw much light on this subject. It appears from the latter that, under date of 6th February, 1761, Linn us wrote that he possessed the art of impregnating mussels for pearl-production, and offered for a suitable reward from the state to publish the secret for the public use and benefit. A select committee of the state council of Sweden was appointed to confer with him, and on 27th July, 1761, the naturalist appeared and verbally explained his discovery. After various meetings, the select committee approved the art and recommended a compensation of 12,000 dalars (about $4800). It does not appear that the award was paid, and the following year the secret was purchased by Peter Bagge, a Gothenberg merchant, for the sum of 6000 dalars. On 7th September, 1762, King Adolph Frederick issued a grant to this merchant to practice the art without interference or competition. 1
Peter Bagge was unable to exercise the rights which he had acquired, nor was he able to dispose of them to advantage. On his death the memorandum of the secret became lost, and it was not found until about 1821, when it was discovered by a grandson, J. P. Bagge. Under the date of 27th February, 1822, the King of Sweden confirmed to this grandson the privileges which his ancestor had purchased in 1762. Fruitless efforts were again made to dispose profitably of the rights either to individuals or to the Swedish government.
The details of Linn us s secret have never been published authoritatively. In his History of Inventions, Beckmann states that before the naturalist thought of the profits that might accrue from his discovery, he intimated the process in the sixth edition of his Systema natur , wherein he states: Margarita test excrescentia latere interiore, dum exterius latus perforatur. 2 I once told him, says Beckmann, that I had discovered his secret in his own writings; he seemed to be displeased, made no inquiry as to the passage, and changed the discourse. 3
In the second volume of his edition of Linn us s Correspondence, 4 Sir J. E. Smith remarks: Specimens of pearls so produced by art in the Mya margaritifera are in the Linnean cabinet. The shell appears to have been pierced by flexible wires, the ends of which perhaps remain therein. Referring to this remark, J. P. Bagge comments: This is the nearest I have seen any one come to truth, but still it will be remarked by reading the secret that more information is required to enable persons to practice the art.
After a thorough examination of the manuscripts and other material, Professor Herdman concludes that the essential points of Linn us s process are to make a very small hole in the shell and insert a round pellet of limestone fixed at the end of a fine silver wire, the hole being near the end of the shell so as to interfere only slightly with the mollusk, and the nucleus being kept free from the interior of the shell so that the resulting pearl may not become adherent to it by a deposit of nacre. 1
Shortly after Linn us communicated with the Swedish government and before his death, it was learned in Europe that the art of producing culture pearls by a somewhat similar process had been practised by the Chinese for centuries. 2 They used several forms of matrices or nuclei, but principally spheres of nacre and bits of flat metal or molded lead, which were not infrequently in conventional outline of Buddha. In the spring or early summer, these were introduced under the mantle of the living mollusk after the shell had been carefully opened a fraction of an inch, and the animal was then returned to the pond or lake. The mollusk did its work in a leisurely way, like some people who have little to do, and many months elapsed before it was ready for opening and the removal of the pearly objects.
The most satisfactory description we have seen of this process appears to be that communicated nearly a century later to the London Society of Arts by Dr. D. T. Macgowan, 3 through H. B. M. plenipotentiary in China, from which this account is abridged and modified.
The industry is prosecuted in two villages near the city of Titsin, in the northern part of the province of Che-kiang, a silk-producing region. In May or June large specimens of the fresh-water mussels, Dipsas plicatus , are brought in baskets from Lake Tai-hu, about thirty miles distant. For recuperation from the journey, they are immersed in fresh water for a few days in bamboo cages, and are then ready to receive the matrices.
These nuclei are of various forms and materials, the most common being spherical beads of nacre, pellets of mud moistened with juice of camphor seeds, and especially thin leaden images, generally of Buddha in the usual sitting